Why is the Culprit so Hot? Literally
by nalunatics
Summary: "So, tell me what ha-ppend..?"  Lucy's voice faltered a bit as she rounded the table and caught sight of the man in front of her.  He had a boyish charm to him, soft features, but a defined jaw.  His dark green eyes looked like they held something like anger, but it was more mischievous than that." Detective Heartfilia was definitely NOT being swayed by his looks. Absolutely not.


"Who's Gajeel got this time, Lev?" Lucy questioned her friend, who was stuck doing office work for the time being. The little blue haired woman rubbed her growing stomach absentmindedly, and shifted her light brown gaze to Lucy's.

"You won't believe this one; it's some arsonist with _pink_ hair." Levy snickered as the door was roughly shoved open and a tall police officer, with a mane of long and wild black hair, stepping in dragging along said suspect.

"All yours, Lucy." Gajeel stated gruffly, his pierced brows knit together in a permanent scowl. Levy smiled fondly at her husband; Lucy would never understand how someone like Levy, the complete opposite of Gajeel, who was brash and gruff, ended up with the guy. Not that she was unhappy or disliked Gajeel, in fact, she adored the two. She was so happy to learn that their little family was growing and Levy was set to have twins to which Levy had asked Lucy to be their godmother. Lucy, of course, accepted the offer enthusiastically and was eagerly awaiting the moment she could meet her godchildren.

Gajeel absolutely adored Levy and loved her with all of his heart. He used to be in a bad place, but after meeting Levy, his turned around real quick. Levy introduced him to the force, and after _much_ convincing, Makarov, chief detective, allowed him to go through the process of becoming an officer. It took a long time before the old man allowed Gajeel to have a gun, but after seeing how much Levy trusted and cared for him, Makarov, in turn, did as well.

Gajeel muscled the, as promised, pink haired suspect into the interrogation room for Lucy. She hadn't caught his face, but she _did_ hear his many complaints and protests before Gajeel slammed the door behind them. Lucy sighed and shot a bored look at Levy.

"Hey, at least you get some action. I'm stuck in here all day doing shitty paperwork." Levy pouted and Lucy sympathized with her very pregnant friend.

"Hey, you've got to protect the most important things in your life right now, right?" Lucy reminded her softly and rubbed her shoulder. Levy smiled down at her belly and nodded her head in agreement.

"Yeah, you're right. Alright, go get em' for me, Lu!" Levy smiled and Lucy nodded her head in determination.

"You got it!" Lucy raised her fist in determination and turned on her heel towards the interrogation room. Inside the dimly lit room, Lucy could hear the pink haired guy and Gajeel bickering back and forth.

"I told you, ya better shut yer trap or I'm gonna whack you upside the head." Gajeel growled and the guy, who was now strapped to the desk, yanked on his restraints.

"I already told ya, it was a _mistake_! A mi-stake. Should I spell it out for ya? You don't seem to bright!" He snapped back and Gajeel was practically letting out a guttural growl by the time Lucy stepped in the room. She was just in time to see Gajeel raising a threatening fist before she stopped him.

"Gajeel," She warned him, "I don't think we support police brutality here at Magnolia Police Department, do we?" Lucy tutted. Gajeel had a bit of a temper and it seemed like their suspect was just as much of a hot-head as her friend.

"Tch. Sorry."

"Ha!" The pink haired guy laughed only to be cut short by a death glare from Gajeel. Lucy sighed and stepped fully into the room; the guy's back was to her so all she could see was Gajeel facing her and the guy's mop of spiky pink hair. His red flannel was burnt in various places- not very convincing for his pleas of innocence.

"Alright Gajeel, I'll call you if I need you, okay?"

"Are you sure? This one's..." Gajeel finished his sentence with a disgusted snort, though Lucy heard the genuine concern behind his words. Gajeel cared for Lucy as well; being Levy's best friend, he always had a sort of older brotherly protection over Lucy.

"Yeah, I promise." Lucy smiled and Gajeel nodded. Lucy knew he had been wanting to spend as much time with Levy as possible anyways. "Alright then." Lucy started and strode over to the other side of the room to where she could see his face. Her heels clacked intimidatingly across the floor, echoing around the mainly empty room. "So, tell me what ha-ppend..?" Lucy's voice faltered a bit as she rounded the table and caught sight of the man in front of her. He had a boyish charm to him, soft features, but a defined jaw. His dark green eyes looked like they held something like anger, but it was more mischievous than that. His full lips hung in something between a snarl and a smirk, and a septum ring, that Lucy would have thought she would not find attractive but did, hung fashionably from his nose. Where his sleeves were burned, Lucy caught sight of his full sleeves of tattoos on both arms. His flannel hung open a bit, where the buttons had been ripped or singed, showing off his defined chest. He wasn't too skinny or too bulky, he was lithe and strong looking, and Lucy, was quite simply, drooling over her suspect.

"Um..." Lucy felt like an idiot stammering out her words; the guy quirked a brow at her and set an infuriatingly hot smirk on his lips. "N-Natsu... Dragneel?" Lucy tried to steady her voice, reading off his name from the report Gajeel had left for her.

"Yup." He answered her, folding his fingers together in front of him.

"I'm detective Heartfilia." Lucy busied her gaze down at the manilla folder in her hands. "It says you set yourself on fire and ran through South Gate Park, where you _then_ set the grass, a bench, and a tree, before jumping into the park's fountain..." She shifted a curious gaze back at the sinfully attractive man across from her. "And you plea innocence?"

"Before you continue, I mean, you could man handle me. You know, go bad cop on me? I'd rather have you do it than metal head in there. So, if you need to, ya know, go ahead." Natsu leaned back in his chair and smirked. Lucy glared at him and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Th-that is not going to happen, Mr. Dragneel! Now, the matter at hand-" Natsu snorted out a snicker and Lucy almost dropped her jaw on the table. It wouldn't be the first time that a culprit hadn't taken her seriously. The first thing they see is her well endowed chest, which she couldn't help thank you very much, and her blonde hair and decently good looks, in her opinion, and just think she's just some dumb bimbo. It infuriated Lucy to no end and she would not stand for it. "Listen here-!"

"You're weird, you know that?" He stated and sighed, attempting to cross his arms, but failing do to his restraints.

"Did you just call me 'weird'?" Lucy asked incredulously and Natsu sighed again.

"Yeah, I did. First you give me a whole 'elevator look' and then you go all serious on me. What do you want to do, make-out or arrest me?" He grinned revealing white teeth with longer-than-usual canines. Lucy gasped, her face flushing, and set a glare on his stupid pink hair, unable to look him in the eyes. "I prefer the latter, but I suppose it's up to you, eh?"

"Alright, that's it! Need I call Gajeel back in here?" Lucy growled and slapped his file onto the metal tabletop. "Start talking _now_ or I'll arrest you without getting your side!"

"Okay, okay." Natsu seemed to sober up a bit and Lucy tried to relax her breathing. "It's really not like the report says, I promise." He looked up at her sincerely and Lucy stared at him as intimidatingly as possible. After a few moments of silence and Natsu twiddling his thumbs, he finally spoke up again.

"See, I'm an entertainer," He began and Lucy quirked an eyebrow at him.

"By setting out lovely park on fire?"

"No! No, that's the _last_ thing I wanted to do." Natsu sighed and shook his head angrily. "I'm a fire-breather, you know, you can rent me for parties and shit like that?" Lucy's brows shot up in surprise and Natsu shrugged. "I need to make money somehow. Anyways, I do my own shows and I had one in South Gate Park later today. I was practicing just outside of the park where my friend, he's kind of like my safety guy, was there with me." Natsu explained and Lucy nodded for him to continue.

"Well, just as I was practicing one maneuver, that bastard Gray- he's my friend-"

" _Sounds_ like he's your friend." Lucy snorted at his choice of words, but gestured for him to continue.

"Gray, supposedly, accidentally knocked over one of my fuel cans. I didn't notice until after I lit my torch and went to start the trick. There was fuel all around me, I got the lit torch too close to the ground, and ended up setting myself on fire." He scowled at the wall seeming as though he was a little embarrassed judging by his ears turning red.

"Okay..."

"Gray was too busy flirting with his girlfriend, apparently, to help me, so I did the next best thing. I know it wasn't the _smartest_ thing, you know, civilians, but I ran through the park to the fountain. I didn't _mean_ to set anything on fire, but by the time I was out, your dumbass officer out there was arresting me. Who the fuck knows where Gray was." Natsu huffed and Lucy's gaze softened a bit. It sounded like the guy was just not having a good day. "Now I miss out on money _and_ I've been basically arrested."

"Gajeel was just doing his job." Lucy pointed out slightly defensively, but then she sighed. "But I do believe you." Lucy tried to tell herself that it wasn't because she wanted to do ungodly things to Natsu, but she really did believe his story.

"Hey, Lucy? There's someone here about that idiot." Gajeel poked his head in and jabbed his thumb over his shoulder. Natsu shot him a glare, but Gajeel ignored it.

"Sure, send them in." A few moments passed and in walked a dark haired man and a woman with long blue hair. "Yes?"

"Oh, _there_ you are you son of a bitch!" Natsu sneered at the pair and Lucy could only guess that this was his friend.

"Ah, you must be Gray." Lucy greeted and the guy nodded his head swallowing hard.

"Y-yeah, sorry about all this. I wasn't paying attention and as much as I'd like to see this bastard be arrested, he really didn't do anything wrong." Gray sighed and Lucy stifled a smile.

"See! I fuckin' told ya! Ya damn bastard, can't you and Juvia break it up for five minutes?" The girl behind Gray, assumedly Juvia, blushed heavily and Gray scowled at Natsu.

"Mr. Dragneel, language please." Lucy sighed and Natsu clamped his mouth shut. "Thank you for coming in, I have enough evidence to make a judgement. You two can wait out in the office if you'd like." Gray and Juvia nodded and headed back out the door where Gajeel lead them away from the interrogation room.

"Can I get these _shackles_ off now? Geez, I'm not some scummy criminal." Natsu was pouting and Lucy thought he looked adorable. She obliged and unclasped the handcuffs from around his wrists. He rubbed them absentmindedly, and Lucy noticed that his skin had patches of red burn marks. Without thinking, she passed a thumb over one of the marks and Natsu hissed out in pain.

"Sorry!" Lucy squeaked out and Natsu relaxed once more. "Sorry... They just look painful."

"I'm used to it," Natsu mumbled and Lucy had a suspicion that he was just trying to downplay it for her sake. "I play with fire a lot." He snickered; a devilish smirk on his lips.

"O-okay." Lucy was back to her stammering, doe-eyed-school-girl self. "U-um, yeah, I don't see why you'd be guilty." Natsu stepped closer to her, around the table, and she realized that, while he wasn't nearly as tall as Gajeel, he was about a head taller than herself.

"You're still weird, ya know?" He murmured and grinned. "But Lucy's a real pretty name." He smiled genuinely and Lucy blushed.

"Th-thank you..." Lucy practically gulped and Natsu chuckled out a raspy laugh. "H-hey, um, what time was your show supposed to be?"

"Seven o'clock, why?" Natsu answered her questioningly and Lucy glanced at the clock. It was five thirty and Lucy was pondering a crazy idea.

"Think you can be ready for your show if there's a place nearby to get washed up and everything?" Lucy asked quickly and Natsu nodded, still slightly confused.

"Yeah, I guess, but what place are you talking about?"

"O-oh, just my apartment..." Lucy practically whispered out and Natsu took a moment to deliberate, and then a shit eating grin spread across his face. "O-only because I'm curious about your show!" Lucy frowned at the ground and Natsu laughed.

"Oh, you want to come? Even better!" Natsu exclaimed and Lucy blushed furiously.

"Well, let's get going then." Lucy ordered. "Or do I need to cuff you to get you moving?"

"We can only use handcuffs if you ask nicely." Natsu winked down at her and Lucy fought the urge to, again, drop her jaw in astonishment.

"Th-that's not- y-you..!" Lucy stammered and Natsu practically cackled as he walked about the door.

"I have my uniform in my truck, lemme grab it and we can go!" Natsu stated and dashed out of the police office. Lucy stood in the doorway to the interrogation room, looking dumbfounded, until Levy's giggle disrupted her thoughts.

"My, my, Lucy, you look positively love struck." Levy smirked and Lucy gasped at her friend.

"You're just a romantic, Levy! That's absurd!" Lucy protested though she felt like she was lying to her best friend.

"Hm? What's that, twins? You want an _Uncle_ , with _pink_ hair, as well as an Aunt Lucy?" Levy tilted her head towards her belly and Gajeel let out a guffaw while Lucy's face turned beet red.

"C'mon, Luce!" Natsu swung open the main door and called to her. _Luce?_

"Ooh, you're on a nickname basis already?" Levy cooed and Lucy stormed past her friend's desk in embarrassment.

"Hey, don't ya think ya could do better?" Gajeel called, pulling a face at Lucy.

"How were you when Levy found you?" Lucy called back and smiled at her two friends leaving Gajeel with an embarrassed scowl on his face; Lucy left to meet Natsu, feeling embarrassed in her own was for essentially admitting her 'love at first sight' feelings for the slightly masochistic fire breather outside the police station.


End file.
